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Top Chef Masters
... it's coming! Sorry. I missed the airing and its subsequent re-airing due to a Wednesday evening cocktail marathon 4K that included stops at the new Franklin Mortgage & Investment Co., among other spots. I don't have DVR. I know this is not a very good excuse.
You should get DVR! It changes your life in a good way.
First clip I came across- and I take it this was from earlier in the season- shows the contestants shopping at Whole Foods on a budget of $300. Does it show them paying an absurd amount for spices and produce? Nice ad spot though I can't imagine any real Chef stopping by Whole Foods. Damn, you have to keep your overhead down.
Aaron: I know man! I gotta make that happen.
Last week, I addressed the whine flu outbreak that spread as a result of the slow-moving debut episode of Top Chef Masters. (Kelly Choi = a host in more ways than one.) While I didn't disagree with the criticisms (sticking Christopher Lee in a shitty dorm room to prep is slightly off-putting), I was confident they'd make it interesting sooner rather than later.
So how did last night's episode � which involved four superstar chefs cooking a feast themed around ABC's Lost � turn out? Let's throw that one to Aziz Ansari of Human Giant and the criminally slept-on Parks & Recreation, who discusses food stuffs regularly on his Twitter:
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I am with that.
Last night's contestants � Elizabeth Falkner (Citizen Cake/Orson in San Fran), Suzanne Tracht (L.A.'s Jar), Graham Elliott Bowles (of his eponoymous Chicago restaurant, and TCM's youngest cheftestant so far) and wd-50's Wylie Dufresne, a multi-appearance Top Chef guest judge who's been given more opportunities to talk about how much he likes eggs than I've been given to make love to a beautiful woman. Last week, I predicted that wily Wylie, he of the foodie-boner-inducing moleculargastronerd persuasion, would breeze through to the championship round of Masters based on the show's outward-bound obsession with him. Turns out � bless my tapioca malodextrin-sprinkled stars! � that I was really wrong.
Quickfire: Choi throws the four chefs a roll of quarters to recreate the infamous vending machine amuse bouche challenge from Top Chef Season 2. Judging: Former cheftestants Ilan, Betty and Michael, all of whom competed in the original. Dufresne found some time between coin feeds to explain his original life goals: "If I had my druthers, I'd be a professional athlete, but I'm not particularly fast or tall or strong," he says. (If I had my druthers, I'd ball-tap anyone who uses the word "druthers.") He earns a lackluster 3 stars out of 5 for a grilled cheese with beer nuts and a Dr. Pepper reduction. Falkner braises beef jerky for a 3.5. Though Bowles comes close to taking the challenge with his 4.5-star tuna salad with pickled shallots and orange soda froth flavored with lime leaf, lemongrass and ginger, Tracht ends up on top thanks to pitch-perfect fried shallot rings with a microgreen salad and Dr. Pepper aioli.
Elimination: Using a bunch of island-y ingredients, the foursome must cook up plates for a group of Lost staffers, including the writing team, co-creator Damon Lindelof and exec producer Carlton Cuse. Tracht is a big Lost fan, stating that she frequently sits down and watches the show for "three and a half hours" at a time. Since it's an hour-long program, that means she creates her own cliffhangers, which is masochistic. Dufresne's never seen Lost, which is probably a good thing for him because the island's mystical magnetic properties would probably prevent him from transmogrifying foie gras into a badminton racket or whatever the hell that guy likes to do.
In addition to the fresh stuff � fish, wild boar (shoutout to Locke), and various veg � the chefs are allowed to buy canned/pre-packaged products to emulate the long-shelf-life Dharma Initiative products from the show. The guests take much glee in the fact that the servers for the challenge are bedecked in Dharma jumpsuits. (This is probably the point in the program when Ansari laid his set down on his futon.)
Falkner braises and sous-vides some boar with ancho garlic rub and throws it together with a papaya yam pudding Gael Green curtly compares to baby food. Bowles, a Navy brat who grew up on the island nations of Hawaii and the Philippines (what up!), impresses with a multicultural tuna trio, including a coffee-crusted plancha-grilled loin that makes Saveur's James Oseland swoon. Dufresne does roast chicken with � yes �� his signature poached egg, along with a plaintain pur�e and some banana mustard. Lost's Lindelof likens Dufresne's offerings to "a piece of art in a museum that I don't understand," which is a totally fair criticism from a guy who's responsible for creating one of the most straightforward, easy-to-decipher shows in television history.
Tracht, who already had a big leg up from her Quickfire win, earns plaudits across the panel for her seafood risotto with uni, clams and prawns, wild boar strip with oyster beer sauce and mango corn salad. "If I was lost on an island, I'd want your instinct for flavor to get me through the dark nights," Britcrit Jay Rayner tells the Angeleno chef. Tracht ends up securing a slot in the finals alongside Episode 1 winner Hubert Keller, accruing a total of 22.5 stars. Rounding out the finish: Bowles (20.5), Dufresne (20) and Falkner (16.5), who I think got shafted a little bit.
Next week: Rick Bayless whines about quesadillas.
she gets it on DVD...no commercial breaks for four episodes = roughly 3.5 hours of watching (include a minute between episodes, plus some bathroom breaks). i know this, because that's how i watched seasons 1 and 2 off of netflix. i've since kicked the lost addiction.
Rory dropping SCIENCE!
Was Suzanne Tracht on quaaludes or WHAT? Soooo chill and her face didn't move except for her mouth. Too bad I don't write these recaps, huh? I have such good insights.
Second attempt...Gael's baby food comment=too predictable. Wylie=disappointing because he choked culinarily and I missed his f-bombs in the latter part of the show.
I have to stop reading these. It makes me feel no need to watch the show at all. This is a compliment, by the way.
how the hell did i miss this?
[...] Cook eggs with one hand behind your back, monkeys! (How did the albumen-crazed Wylie Dufresne not draw this one?) Rodriguez rightly calls the task a “circus act,” and rocks out with [...]
[...] crush object Zooey Deschanel was featured on last night’s Top Chef Masters, joining NPH and the dudes from Lost as the latest example of this miniseries’ celeb-pulling power. (”I loved her in [...]
[...] Meal Ticket :: Blog Archive :: Top Chef Masters Episode 2: No cook is an island :: Philadelphia City... mealticket.blogs.citypaper.net/blogs/mu/2009/06/18/top-chef-masters-episode-2-no-cook-is-an-island – view page – cached o ⢠That was [DEL: un :DEL] expected: Brad Lidge blows save o ⢠That was [DEL: un :DEL] expected: Fumo wants to pick his — From the page [...]
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From my perch in the alley behind atop the precipice of Food TV Mount Olympus, I can see some marked ambivalence toward Top Chef Masters, the Top Chef spin-off that debuted on Bravo last night. "Shit is boring!" I hear y'all say. Two thoughts on this. First: We're one episode in, relax. Second: I think Top Chef fans might've overestimated how compelling 24 all-stars competing for a $100K charity prize would be. Sure, these polished women and men will all bust their asses to earn cash for a cause (and save face too, of course), but since they're already so established, the hungry, competitive scramble that makes the original TC such an addictive watch is simply a non-factor. (There's also no Tom C. or Padma! There is Gael Greene, thankfully.) We're probably going to have to toe-tap till the six-chef championship round to witness the real craziness.
(Real quick, logistical crap: Each ep features four chefs competing in a Quickfire and an Elimination. All the QF challenges you see will be borrowed from previous Top Chef seasons. There's a star system: QFs are worth 5 and Eliminations are worth 20. At the end, the one chef with the highest star total earns a finalist slot, and the other three are sent home.)
Episode 1's four gladiators � Christopher Lee (NY's Aureole and formerly of Striped Bass; check out Adam Erace's great Q&A), Hubert Keller (SF's Fleur de Lys; seems like a real nice guy, looks like Euro Gandalf), Michael Schlow (Boston's Radius) and Tim Love (Fort Worth's Lonesome Dove).
Quickfire: The cheftestants are told by host Kelly Choi (I think they posted a Craigslist like "Seeking Hot Ethnic Woman Who Claims to Be a 'Foodie' But is Clearly Too Skinny For That Shit") that they'll be whipping up a dessert for some Girl Scouts. First impressions: Lee and Keller seem happy to be there, Schlow does not, and the producers really enjoy playing up that Love is "just a punk from Texas" with no formal culinary training. Look at that guy, juggling eggs! How non-traditional!
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The Scouts, as expected, are far tougher critics than little girls should be, and Lee expresses his desire to cap the redhead who keeps saying everything sucks. (Always the redheads.) Keller ends up winning the QF because he uses mousse and whipped cream to form adorable edible animals (right). He earns a perfect five stars for his efforts. "Cool, you can't higher than that," he exclaims.
Elimination: The four chefs are given $150 to cook three courses in a Pomona College dorm room using only a hot plate, a microwave and a toaster oven. "I don't even own a microwave oven," says Schlow with the same ennui-soaked inflection of someone who thinks they're cool because they don't have TV. You don't care about what they cooked (though Keller did rock pasta in a dorm shower ... mmm) so I'll gloss over that this time to share what I found most interesting about this round � there was a huge gap in scoring between Love and Schlow and Keller and Lee. While neither the cowpokin' toque nor the Beantown Italian chef managed to break 15 stars, Keller and Lee earned scores of 20.5 and 19, respectively.
Could it be that two those simply outcooked their opponents on that day? Absolutely. But it's also worth pointing out that both Keller and Lee have a discernible leg up on the other two guys in terms of national presence. While it's too early to truly tell, I won't be all that surprised if the Masters season progresses in this manner, with lil' Epicurean Manchurian Candidates gently ushered through to the finals to ensure airtight ratings. So if wd-50's Wylie Dufresne takes next week's LOST-themed episode ...
Last thing: I need someone to figure out a way to superimpose this picture of Hubert Keller DJing onto tabs of acid so I can drop 90 of them.
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I actually think that the Craigslist ad said: "Seeking Asian version of Giada de Laurentiis."
I found it barely watchable. Ok, I get it, these guys don't NEED to win this. They don't really take it all that seriously, ok. But sticking Hubert Keller in a dorm room with a hot plate? Its a tad patronizing.
But sticking Hubert Keller in a dorm room with a hot plate? Its a tad patronizing. And it's only going to get more patronizing from here on out! I believe they'll be doing the vending machine challenge on the next ep.
not only was it patronizing, but it was also stupid. I'll watch young up-and-comers do gimmicks like that because I don't have any expectations of their food, but i want to watch Hubert Keller and Chris Lee COOK. I want to see what goes on in their brains when you say "caviar. 30 minutes. go" also, having the guest judges know who was cooking each dish? weak. would have been much better to have been blind judging. I also would have loved for them to group the chefs by style/city/something. So group one could have been classic french chefs, group 2 the gastronomists, group 3 fusion, etc. Though anything that gets these recaps back on the blog I'm for. favorite recurring post of mine.
[...] - Hubert Keller [...]
[...] For this “high stakes” challenge ($15k prize), Texas chef Tim Love (a Top Chef Masters contestant) has the remaining cheftestants create a dish based around a tough ingredient selected by the Top [...]
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